Our new Indie Games subforum is now open for business in G&T. Go and check it out, you might land a code for a free game. If you're developing an indie game and want to post about it, follow these directions. If you don't, he'll break your legs! Hahaha! Seriously though.

Our rules have been updated and given their own forum. Go and look at them! They are nice, and there may be new ones that you didn't know about! Hooray for rules! Hooray for The System! Hooray for Conforming!

Mythic is currently releasing a â€œLive Expansionâ€ called "Call to Arms" that is basically a staggering list of patches, Live Events, and release of new content. Expect lots of content to come and go swiftly. If there was a time to pay extra attention to WAR, this is it! We are currently at about the halfway point. Here is the schedule as of now:

But a list is not enough. So here I have two very nice podcasts for you, with a third on the way next month. But nope, that isn't good enough either, so here are two articles on the herald that go even deeper in depth! You can take a stroll through The Land of the Dead or The Necropolis of Zandri. Screenshots and artwork below.

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (WAR) is a MMORPG from the folks at Mythic, creators of fine gamery such as Dark Age of Camelot (DAoC). WAR is focused on Realm vs. Realm, or RvR, design. Two realms (Order and Destruction) try to beat the living shit out of each other while claiming everything for themselves. While PvE exists, this is a game where PvP is the hallmark. WAR puts a stake in the heart of other MMOs and their dull PvP content with intelligently designed and well balanced PvP content, dubbed 'RvR' or 'Realm vs. Realm.' From the start (yes, at level 1) you can head out and start fighting the other realm for control of the world, be it in the game world or sequestered in small, objective-minded scenarios. As they say: War is Everywhere!

This all takes place in the Warhammer Fantasy universe, an ancient piece of geek culture that has aged like a fine wine. Recently celebrating it's 25th anniversary, Warhammer is a rich piece of work that takes the fantasy genre to dark, violent places. Humans are no better than the real-world Catholic Church of the Dark Ages, Elves have serious superiority complexes and Orcs treat war like a sport. What a great backdrop for a massive PvP-oriented game with non-stop conflict and strife! Morskittar is a Warhammer guru of sorts, and has a good handle on how to get up-to-speed on all things Warhammer.

However, just diving into the game is also a great way to get a handle of how the world of Warhammer works. Each race, each zone, each quest, they all shed light on how things operate. Gone are the generic "Kill 3 bats for their batwings" and instead think "To further break their spirits, rip off 4 rebellious villager's heads and place them on pikes for the glory of our Raven God." The story of WAR is played out with a Tome of Knowledge, which is the in game tracker, rewards system, quest giver, and achievements manager-- all in one! If you want just the right amount of lore, without having to read walls of it, start with the tome. It is flavorful, but in morsels. Such delicious morsels.

So, if you want to play this is a good time to start. Scroll down for information on free trials and get started in WAR.

RETURNING PLAYERS:

Spoiler:

Welcome back to WAR. We're glad you are here. If you have been away for more than 60 days, you can just hop on down to the Free Trials section below and ask someone for an invitation to the game. The link should offer you some place to reactivate your old account, allowing you to play the game for 10 days for free but as your old characters.

So what is new? There's been plenty of awesome new features and live events. The first major fix was to fortresses which are rarely if ever crashing now. What else? Well there is ORvR influence now. The more you fight, the better chances you have to build up points over time and get rewards for them like at chapter hubs. The points really have to be built over time and it really adds a sense of longevity to the game while handing you our some pretty damn fine items across several milestones. It sounds like a small tweak but it really makes ORvR more consistent, especially so when coupled with the Zone Domination system. When you capture a BFO or Keep, it has a timer that ticks down. Hold everything in the zone long enough and the zone flips, regardless of Victory Points. So what else is there? Well you can check out the 1.2 notes right here. Mythic has been very aggressively pumping out juicy patches. 1.2 patch notes. You can also read up on the 1.2.1 patch. Supposedly it was a 'mini' patch but Mythic is intent on having every patch, big or small, have a nice and noticeable positive impact on the game.

But what is coming next? Well, this whole RvR dungeon thing is kind of a big deal. Some of you may remember from Camelot the Darkness Falls dungeon. A labyrinth yet well laid out dungeon featuring difficult yet very rewarding PvE content, it's own currency with tokens for rare items not found anywhere else, and also the 'look over your shoulder' aspect that is associated with enemy players being able to tear control of the dungeon from your realm's grasp and pour in to wide out your entire faction, making the dungeon free to explore for their own gain. Well, you aren't going to just let them kick you out without a fight! And thus is the purge. Across the lands of the dead, there are certain choke points and areas of interest where defenses will be had, but don't fool yourself by avoiding the crossroads, there is no 'safe.' Only 'safer.' This represents a new flavor of RvR which has not been expressed yet, a more intimate and skill based RvR.

The dungeon will be coming in 1.3. However, what else will come with it is still unknown. 1.3 will probably have several notable features, but nothing else has really been confirmed. Mythic is planning on adding an additional ramp to keeps and fortresses so that there is no 'tank walls' to slow down the fighting. Additionally, there will be better EAX support, improved graphics optimizations, and general UI improvements. However, these additional features are not assigned to any particular patch quite yet. Still, WAR is shaping up to be a highly polished PvP MMO.

It's a good time to be answering the Call to Arms!

FREE TRIALS:

Spoiler:

Free trials are now available from the main WAR website but invitations from current subscribers are preferred as they will get a free 30 days and some other cool rewards. Each subscriber has up to 6 invitations to offer every month and the trial lasts 10 days of free game play across any of the servers. To get a trial, pick a letter from the list below and PM the recipient your first name and email. You should be set after that!

UPDATE: Also! If you have been out of the game for more than 60 days, go on and PM one of the above! We can hook you up with 10 days on your old account! What a good time to Come Back to Camelo-- er, Warhammer. ;)

ARMIES:

Spoiler:

Warhammer Online has two realms, each with three armies, and every army has four careers. While some careers are similar to each other in terms of mechanics, you're looking at 24 careers here and while there may be one with a similiar mechanic on the opposing faction, each class has its own unique hallmark. For example, the 3 tanks from Destruction play very differently from one another, even though they still are tanks. Black Orkz have Combos they string together, Black Guards have hate that builds and Chosen have auras that can twist and become even more vile. All three are tanks, but how they tank is unique. If you need help deciding, click on the army and read up on their careers. Each race has a Tank, Healer, Melee DPS and Ranged DPS class. Be sure to try a handful of them out to at the very least, rank 5 to see if you like where the class is going. Each Class is useful in both PvE and RvR. There are some that are better at PvE than others but if you are mixing up your play-style, WAR should not feel grindy and you should not base your class choice on what 'levels' the fastest.

GUILDS:

Spoiler:

Penny-Arcade has two main guilds, The Six Mouths from Destruction on Iron Rock and also the Candymancers from Order on Badlands. Do a /who [guildname] to talk to these people and see if you can join in from in game or make a post on the forums or PM someone here on the PA forums if you know they are an officer or guild master of one of the two servers. Both guilds are friendly, active and casual. Also thanks to the 2 new careers that have rolled out, there are players across both guilds from all level ranges! Our guilds are a great way to get into the game.

Rumor has it that there is a European PA guild called Obsidian Spur and that it is rolled on the server Karak Eight Peaks. Seems Klyka and Echo are the notable mentions from other there. Probably no finger EU WAR PA guild.

ADD-ONS**:

Spoiler:

Warhammer Online has very extensive Modding and UI support for those of you who are into that sort of thing. Even better, many of your favorite WoW addons have found their way into WAR with more being uploaded every day. Here are a few must haves.
Note: Having the Curse Client makes the install and uninstall process a whole lot easier but does require paying attention to basic instructions to set it up properly.

No Movie Mod This removes every opening movie, including the logos. I, Accualt, declare this shall be in every OP ever from now on.

State of Realm Shows you a detailed look at Tier 4, and also includes the keep status of Tiers 2 and 3. Shows the Victory Points of all Tiers and will even display timers when local Battle Objectives are taken.

Aura Letâ€™s you put up static images when certain effects are activeâ€¦such as debuffs that damage you when you move.

PhantomAllows you to turn off UI elements that you normally aren't able to.

Waaaghbar Continue A strip that you can place at the top or bottom (or both) sides of your screen. Lists info like friends/guildmates online, money, level/rank progress and more. This is a continuation of the original, which had ceased work.

Squared A layout of boxes for your party/warband. Makes things a bit cleaner.

Auto Dismount Does what it says. Dismounts you when you use an action.

The Warhammer community is FULL of fantastic resources. Digging around, let me share some of the best around. Bookmarking these is a great help. To really break your noobhood, these resources really do a hell of a job cramming in necessary info without being bloated or filled with crap. Study them religiously.

Another little reworking. I rephrased a few of the sub-sections. I'm going to be reworking more and more of the OP for clarity and ease of use. My goal is to make it noob friendly yet have enough depth so people have something to check out here and there. More to come!

More to the point, what of the original patch notes for 1.2.1 is still there? They nixed pretty much all stat-related changes (including WL pet changes ) on PTS in favour of siege testing. Whether this means they'll put them in untested or not at all or they were tested enough...

More to the point, what of the original patch notes for 1.2.1 is still there? They nixed pretty much all stat-related changes (including WL pet changes ) on PTS in favour of siege testing. Whether this means they'll put them in untested or not at all or they were tested enough...

The stat changes were never actually part of the patch notes. They specifically said they were only being tested on the test server to get more feedback on if they want to put them in a future patch but they were not going to be part of 1.2.1.

do any of you still play on Iron Rock? I got a 25 magus there I want to dust off when i need a break from the Bright Wizard.

on a different note, anyone else disappointed by the way this game plays? i really wanted to play melee, but i felt mostly useless w/o a personal healer on my White Lion. once i hit lvl 18 i started to wreck stuff in t2 SCs, but then i was a scrub again once i hit lvl 22. and in keeps i feel mostly useless in defense, and I die in one shot from the oil, so i can't attack the door on offense.

those reasons are why i'm playing a BW, because this game only needs RDPS, healers (all types), and tanks. I feel like there is no place for MDPS (note: mara, WL, WE, WH) in any situation involving more than 6v6. on the other hand, slayers and choppas absolutely rip peoples faces off. and they AE extremely well, making them fit right into the game somehow. just makes me sad.

God, the hound is terribad. Terribad. The head is ok, but the rest of model (i.e. everything you see when the dog is running alongside you) looks like something a 6-year-old would make out of putty in arts 'n crafts class. Every time I equip it, I half expect it to show up with macaroni and glitter glued to it. Furthermore, the thing disappears at the drop of a hat. Once it's disappeared, you usually need to relog before it will show back up again. It's a great idea for a marketing reward, but the implementation is seriously half-assed.

I really wanted the Rod of Command or whatever they're calling it, which you get after recruiting for subscribers. Being able to sidekick someone would be super handy, since I have one low-level friend who's trying to catch up with our group of mains. If they half-assed the implementation of that feature as badly as they did the ass-end of my hound, though, I'm probably not missing much. I've sent out six trials, 2 subbed, 4 canceled. At this point my lowbie friend and I have resigned ourselves to waiting until he hits 32 before we can play together.

do any of you still play on Iron Rock? I got a 25 magus there I want to dust off when i need a break from the Bright Wizard.

on a different note, anyone else disappointed by the way this game plays? i really wanted to play melee, but i felt mostly useless w/o a personal healer on my White Lion. once i hit lvl 18 i started to wreck stuff in t2 SCs, but then i was a scrub again once i hit lvl 22. and in keeps i feel mostly useless in defense, and I die in one shot from the oil, so i can't attack the door on offense.

those reasons are why i'm playing a BW, because this game only needs RDPS, healers (all types), and tanks. I feel like there is no place for MDPS (note: mara, WL, WE, WH) in any situation involving more than 6v6. on the other hand, slayers and choppas absolutely rip peoples faces off. and they AE extremely well, making them fit right into the game somehow. just makes me sad.

As an mdps, you should be nowhere near the door and the oil. The heals that could be going to keeping the tanks alive and using that ram to knock down the door are now being diverted to keeping you alive as well.

That said, there's plenty of other things you can do, like guarding the postern and killing incoming enemies, or even taking BOs while the enemy is holed up in the keep. I usually grab a DoK/WP who can afford to be doing other things and I range my mdps near the outside of the keep postern or within that vicinity and start killing incoming players. On defense, stay within rez range of the keep and range out and start hitting their healers or rdps if possible. Dying isn't the end-all-be-all it is in other games, so long as you take someone with you, you're doing your job and disrupting heals and attention.

Also, up until t4, mdps actually has a purpose and they're able to contribute to 6v6 from my experience. This is coming from someone who plays a WH, an mdps more squishy than your WL. I did fine in t1 - t3 in scenarios and rvr, up until t4 where shit gets absurd.

Honestly, it just sounds like you zerg with the tanks and get focus-fired down. Playing a good mdps requires patience and timing, and knowing when to strike at the right time. Rushing in with the tanks or charging a destro zerg will get you tab killed.

on a different note, anyone else disappointed by the way this game plays? i really wanted to play melee, but i felt mostly useless w/o a personal healer on my White Lion. once i hit lvl 18 i started to wreck stuff in t2 SCs, but then i was a scrub again once i hit lvl 22.

That happens in every tier for pretty much every class, though it hits MDPS the hardest since they're not incredibly durable nor ranged and need to get into the danger zone to actually contribute. If it makes you feel any better, after 25 you begin being useful again, and 28-30 are golden.

Then T4 is complete crap until 40, at which point it's... okay. I just got Bypass Defenses, so I envision that'll be a lot of fun when coordinating with my WH friend.

Then T4 is complete crap until 40, at which point it's... okay. I just got Bypass Defenses, so I envision that'll be a lot of fun when coordinating with my WH friend.

Man, they so should not have tied Bypass Defenses to renown rank. In T4 (and possibly even in T3), you need this skill to be able to do more than postern watch. It gives you some nice extra options, like being able to go through the postern and beat on the door from the inside. This lets you DPS the door without being in the oil's area of effect. Or you can get up on the keep walls and harass the defenders. It's a pretty strong argument for keeping your RR high while you level your MDPS toons, anyway.

That being said, it's currently open to a lot of abuse. The radius on AoE healing is so huge right now that certain keeps can be ninja'd by organized MDPS + AoE healer teams without having to beat on the door. Somehow I doubt this was intended. Another thing that drives me nuts is that when MDPS gets inside the lord room, the keep lord will agro healers outside. This means MDPS can operate in the lord room but never take any NPC damage because the lord and champs are stuck in a loop, trying to get to the healers then resetting. They need to tie some of the agro to door status, e.g. if the inner door is still up the lord & champs only attack targets within 50 feet.

I spose it was just what I get for PuGing SCs. I didn't rush with the tanks and tab target. in order to do that, the tanks would have had to rush... guarding the poster door was fine, but i'd get punted away by a tank and then they would get in anyways. since that is normally what i did. oh well, unless they add in paid transfers i don't see myself playing him much anymore regardless. if i'm still playing once they add a true expansion and maybe another race (or third faction pleasepleasepleaseplease) I might try MDPS again.

on the other hand, when i had an IB, he was a beast at the end of t1, way stronger i think (once he had 75+ grudge) than my WL. and he just didn't die. t2 was a different beast.

also, does anyone else note a lack of smart tanks? just cause the character has low int the player doesn't have to

also, does anyone else note a lack of smart tanks? just cause the character has low int the player doesn't have to

Yup. In the old thread just before it locked, I posted about a Phoenix Gate scen I ran last night (pug and all, ohboyohboy) and how I had three Chosen in my group who, though they were between levels 18 and 20, they still didn't know what the priority targets were in the scenario, i.e. the goddamn healers.

They also ran behind our healers when overly damaged and brought some friends with them.

Also, I didn't mean to sound all "L2P" in my post, but I don't think that mdps (outside of t4) are really as worthless as people make them out to be. I've been in plenty of scenarios where I've seen a WH or WL or the Destro equivalent owning face. It's just not an all the time thing.

All I've ever known on my DOK is Dark Rites and playing the healer. I've actually been full DR with 1001 dark blessings but after tinkering around in T1 with my WE I've got the urge to have a little fun delivering some killing blows.

Found this build on the WHA forum and was curious if anyone had some input on it

All I've ever known on my DOK is Dark Rites and playing the healer. I've actually been full DR with 1001 dark blessings but after tinkering around in T1 with my WE I've got the urge to have a little fun delivering some killing blows.

Found this build on the WHA forum and was curious if anyone had some input on it

Basically I'd like to go dual wield and whack the enemy when we have dedicated heals but still be able to equip my chalice and play the healbot when heals are lacking.

I can't click on the link (such a thing is not allowed where I work), but what you're describing is what I'm attempting to do on my r23 DoK atm. I just respecced back to Sacrifice from Dark Rites, and I have an alt set of gear for healing.

The DoKs that give our crew the most trouble are the ones that are a) full DR, b) wielding sword+chalice and c) Guarded. If you're the second DoK, and the first one is full DR, sure, do whatcha like. As far as I'm concerned though, any group that doesn't have a DR-heavy sword+chalice DoK / Salv-heavy hammer+book WP is behind the eight-ball compared to a group that does. Make of that what you will.

T4 white lions are probably the worst players I have ever seen. Three level 40 white lions in the scenario, and not one of them could get over 20k damage or a single kill. 20k damage is T1 material.

SC2 Beta: Neva.ling

"Everyone who is capable of logical thought should be able to see why you shouldn't sell lifetime subscriptions to an MMO. Cell phone companies and drug dealers don't offer lifetime subscriptions either, guess why?" - Mugaaz

The DoKs that give our crew the most trouble are the ones that are a) full DR, b) wielding sword+chalice and c) Guarded. If you're the second DoK, and the first one is full DR, sure, do whatcha like. As far as I'm concerned though, any group that doesn't have a DR-heavy sword+chalice DoK / Salv-heavy hammer+book WP is behind the eight-ball compared to a group that does. Make of that what you will.

See, stuff like this makes me wonder why the hell do they even have mastery trees? It's like, a) there's only one tree that's worth speccing into and the rest are trash or mediocre at best, or b) you can spec into a combination of trees but never deep into one because the trees on their own merit suck. If I have to skip over three tactics offered in a mastery tree because they're useless to me, something's fucking wrong there.

I see more and more of this everytime I stick my nose into different classes as I play them and read up on them. It's not like all the classes are asses-and-elbows screwed when it comes to mastery trees, but there's enough that I'm trying to figure out what the hell Mythic was thinking when they made some of the stuff.

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